Attendance at this year's Write On The River was up 42 percent from last year, setting Wenatchi Hall abuzz with more than 165 writers from around the Northwest and some from as far afield as California and Missouri.  

Highlights included an uproarious keynote from Jess Walter of Spokane (Citzen Vince, and The Zero), and a new Sunday story workshop put on by Brian McDonald that surpassed all attendance expectations. Literary agents Katherine Fowler and Donald Maas also report that they came away from the conference with several promising leads.

Thank you to all who participated, all who attended and all who worked to put on this successful conference. If you have feedback for the WOTR organizers, please let us know by writing to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Read the winning pieces, meet the authors here

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The 2009 WOTR Writers' Competition proved a great success. More than 80 authors vied for $1,200 in prize money and six came out on top. A panel of nine judges evaluated each piece for elements of style, clarity of expression and depth before granting three cash awards in both the fiction and nonfiction categories. Many thanks to all who entered their work! To read the winning pieces and meet the writers, click here.

   Jess Walter, author of "The Zero" and a finalist for the 2006 National Book Award will be the official keynote speaker for the 2009 Write On The River conference. Walter's work in both fiction and nonfiction has been widely published and recognized. For more about this year's Keynote speaker, click here.